USA

In its continuing effort to ease credit stresses on banks, theFederal Reserve said Tuesday it has auctioned another$75 billion in loans. Commercial banks paid an interest rate of 2.360 percent for the 28-day loans, the 14th time such short-term loans have been offered since the program began in December.

As the Senate began taking testimony Tuesday in its first hearing on the origin of harsh interrogation methods, including the use of snarling dogs and forced nudity, Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said training specialists helped Pentagon lawyers devise a list of abusive tactics that could be used in prisons like Guantánamo Bay.

Last month's relocation of the nation's air and space defense command (NORAD) involved security problems understated by the Pentagon, according to classified material cited in a report by The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colo. The homeland security center was moved from its longtime cave-complex home inside the Cheyenne Mountain on the southwest side of Colorado Springs to Peterson Air Force Base, which is adjacent to the city's civilian airport.